... home of Ontario's premier pet photographer. This is where the photos of scruffy dog photography meet the heart and soul behind all of those fun and wacky photo shoots and the long hours in the digital darkroom ... a behind-the scenes peek into the zany life of a pet-exclusive photographer and her scruffy sidekicks. For more details on illona and the mcscruffies, check out the "about" section.

What you will find here is the past several years of blog entries -- selected client shoots, sneak peeks, facebook recaps, news and announcements, promos and specials, as well as info on canine health and general dog chat. (NOTE: previous years of blog entries have been archived.)

So, grab a cup of jo, give your scruffy a beef tendon to gnaw on, and enjoy the photos and ramblin's.

another past shoot … so behind … but i thought i’d share this girl with you.

it took a while to warm athena up as she can be something of a fear-nipper. this is the kind of dog that i’ll spend a good half hour or more with before even bringing the camera bags out of the car … and this is where i’m thankful for my years of experience with dogs, able to read their body language and ease their fears and anxiety, no matter what level. with a little patience, athena was a doll.

… and we had fun indoors and out …

i enjoyed shooting this regal girl … and her shadow, of course …

and loved her expressions …

and – as with most of my clients – i like to leave ’em good and tired at the end of a shoot. athena was no exception.

thanks, john and jacquie for a lovely afternoon. i hope you enjoy athena’s photos for years to come.

Amanda-thank you so much for the kind words, they mean a lot from a photographer who’s work i greatly admire. it was a bit intimidating to make the leap for sure, but it feels great to be giving it a shot.

Claire-great set.
and you bring up such an important point about having experience with dog behavior. as i’ve gotten more and more involved in dog photography, i’ve done more and more research into dog behavior–which is something i don’t feel like enough photographers really embrace, so it’s good to hear you approach it in a good way!

Andrea-What a beautiful dog! You captured her wonderfully….as always! 🙂 Such soulful eyes!

as usual, i’m hopelessly behind with my blog entries. this girl is from a shoot i did in late february and meant to post to the blog weeks ago. in the throes of house-hunting, some days it feels like i’m barely keeping my head above water … while the poor scruffies only dream of being out on the trails chasing bunnies.

but without further ado (and excuse-making), here is another lovely i wanted to share with you from the client-pool … darling Zoey.

how sweet is this old girl?!

we had a great hike along the balmy trails with fresh snow underfoot and even ran across a pack of coyotes. unfortunately, i had the absolutely wrong lens on the camera for the encounter … i was capturing this shot of Zoey’s eye at the time …

… so I was using my macro lens … the completely wrong lens to be entertaining when confronting a startled pack of coyotes even at close range. so this was as good as i managed to capture.

… and then back to Zoey. of course, she had to get over her own uneasiness over the close-encounter. these guys were much bigger than her.

and sometimes i couldn’t help thinking Zoey looked a bit like a coyote herself in the landscape we walked through.

but back home, it was clear who owned the front porch of the wonderful home she shared with mom Deb.

… and of course, that gorgeous red door.

thank you for an awesome shoot, Zoey and Deb … for a wonderful and most-eventful afternoon.

after another major overhaul on computer equipment and now in the throes of house-hunting, i’m hopelessly behind on blog posts, and no longer deluding myself into believing that i’ll manage to get every client sneak peek up on the blog these days. still, i’m going to try to get at least a few of my clients’ shoots up on the blog to share.

i swear i wanted to snatch up this 11-year-old dollface and take her home for morley.

and for 11, she sure is a firecracker …

in fact, Jada’s owners were aiming for a strictly indoor shoot because it was that sloppy time of the spring where everything was melting, but i persisted. and when i showed Jada’s mom this money-shot in the LCD i think she finally agreed that heading outdoors had probably been a pretty good idea after all. 🙂

… along with a few classic poses, of course.

and indoors, Jada was a consumate poser … putting even my two models at home to shame.

.. and with mom and dad …

but when this girl goes down for the count, she goes down.

thank you for an awesome shoot, Jada. and Jenny and Blair, hugs to your fantastic little girl.